A federal decide refused Friday to free Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from jail whereas he awaits trial on costs that he plotted with different members of his far-right militia group to assault the U.S. Capitol to cease Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta stated federal prosecutors have introduced “compelling if not robust” proof towards Rhodes, who has been the group’s chief since its 2009 founding. Rhodes poses a “clear and convincing hazard” to the general public, the decide stated throughout a distant listening to.
“His skill to speak, set up are his best weapons,” Mehta stated, calling Rhodes an “extraordinarily subtle particular person.”
Rhodes and 10 different individuals linked to the Oath Keepers are the primary to be charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. 4 different Oath Keepers defendants charged with seditious conspiracy stay jailed pending a trial set for July.
The Jan. 12 indictment additionally charged Rhodes with obstruction of justice. Prosecutors say he tried to destroy digital proof of the alleged plot from his cellphone.
Rhodes, 56, has been detained in federal custody since his arrest in Little Elm, Texas, a day after his indictment. On Jan. 26, a federal Justice of the Peace decide in Plano, Texas, ordered him jailed pending trial. Rhodes’ attorneys requested Mehta to overturn that call, however the decide rejected the request.
Prosecutors say Rhodes orchestrated the group’s assault on the Capitol with backup from an armed “fast response pressure,” or “QRF,” stationed at a Consolation Inn simply throughout the river in Arlington, Va. The QRF was made up of Oath Keepers members from Arizona, Florida and North Carolina and stayed in touch with Rhodes in the course of the assault, in keeping with prosecutors.
“The QRF groups guarded an arsenal of firearms and associated tools and had been ready to hurry these weapons into the fingers of co-conspirators on the bottom in Washington when directed by Rhodes or different conspiracy leaders,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting.
Rhodes’ attorneys described the QRF as a defensive pressure, “referred to as if and provided that required to defend members or these with whom they've been charged with defending,” they wrote in a submitting.
The indictment additionally alleges that two groups of Oath Keepers fashioned military-style “stacks” as they stormed and entered the Capitol.
Throughout a listening to Wednesday, the decide requested a prosecutor why authorities consider the Oath Keepers didn’t activate a QRF staff. Assistant U.S. Atty. Kathryn Rakoczy stated they didn’t must as a result of group members had breached the Capitol with out it.
Rakoczy referred to Rhodes because the “architect” of the plot. One in every of Rhodes’ attorneys, James Vivid, stated no such plot existed.
“There was no conspiracy to overthrow the federal government,” Vivid advised the decide. “There definitely was an infinite quantity of bombastic language that was concerned.”
Rhodes spent greater than $15,000 on firearms and associated tools within the week earlier than the Capitol riot and acquired greater than $17,000 in extra firearms-related tools between Jan. 6 and Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, in keeping with prosecutors. Mehta stated the amount and timing of these gun purchases isn’t in step with any person shopping for them for self-defense.
Rhodes’ attorneys stated he doesn’t pose a risk to the general public or a flight threat. He voluntarily met with FBI brokers a number of occasions after Jan. 6 and gave them his telephone, they famous.
Rhodes’ attorneys say Oath Keepers believed that Donald Trump could be invoking the Revolt Act on Jan. 6, “necessitating a necessity for militias and different teams to defend that declaration.”
“When that didn't occur, Rhodes and others took no motion. They left the Capitol grounds and went to dinner,” the protection attorneys wrote.
Oath Keepers additionally supplied safety for longtime Trump backer Roger Stone and others in Washington that day, in keeping with Rhodes’ attorneys.
The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot sought testimony from Rhodes when he appeared remotely earlier than the panel from jail this month.
Rhodes is a Yale Legislation Faculty graduate and army veteran. He was dwelling in Granbury, Texas, after the Capitol riot and has been held at a county jail in Bonham, Texas, since his arrest.
“Rhodes used his authorized and army coaching to steer an assault on our core democratic traditions, and purposefully recruited others with comparable army and legislation enforcement expertise to hitch the battle,” prosecutors wrote.
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